Web-based method and game for tracking publicity

ABSTRACT

An internet service and game that automatically tracks celebrity publicity over time. The service searches the internet for news articles containing names of celebrities. When an article is found, a point value is assigned to the relevant celebrity. To win the game, players attempt to predict future celebrity publicity by selecting celebrities and accruing points when news articles are found by the internet service.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to online fantasy league games and methodsof playing a celebrity related online fantasy league game.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Online fantasy league games are typically oriented around sports andpublished sports scores. The object of these online games are to predictthe abilities of individual sports players in their real world athleticgames. Users playing these online fantasy league games create fantasyteams of sports players. The game tallies the scores of each sportsplayer after their real world athletic games and assigns points to theusers who have these players on their fantasy team.

The present invention, on the other hand, is a fantasy league gamerelated to celebrities. The object of the game is to accurately predictwhen celebrities will receive publicity. When playing the game, userscreate teams of celebrities and receive points when said celebritiesgenerate publicity.

Unlike sports, there are no published publicity scores for celebrities.Consequently, this invention uses articles published on the internet toaward a score or publicity level for each celebrity. The inventionsearches the internet for articles containing the celebrity's name. Foreach article it finds, a point value is assigned to the user who has thecelebrity on their fantasy team.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 is a view of the web page that shows the home page the user seeswhen first connecting.

FIG. 2 is a view of the web page that shows a user creating an accountto play the game.

FIG. 3 is a view of the web page that shows which celebrities aregenerating the most publicity for a give time period. In this case, itis the celebrities with the most publicity in the last 24 hours.

FIG. 4 is a view of the web page that shows a celebrity fantasy leaguein progress. A user can see how well they are playing versus the otherusers in their league.

FIG. 5 is a view of the web page that shows the user's fantasy team.From this page the user can trade celebrities, view how many points theyhave acquired, and see their standing in leagues.

FIG. 6 is a view of the web page showing a user leaving a message forother users.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present invention is an internet service that tracks stories writtenabout individuals with celebrity status and an online game built aroundthis internet service.

The Internet Service

The internet service is software running as a process on a servercomputer. It maintains a database of names of people with celebritystatus and information about news articles written about them. Theservice regularly uses the names in the database to make queries of websites for published articles containing the names. For each article thatis found, the service makes a record in the the database of the date andtime, the title of the article, the web location or URL of the article,and most importantly the celebrity named in the article. The servicethen assigns points to users who were skillful enough to previouslyselect the celebrities who's names have appeared in the articles.

The Game

The player or user, using internet browser software, connects to a website which is the front end for the internet service previouslydescribed (FIG. 1). The user creates a user account on the web site thatthey will use to play the game. To create the account, the user enters aname or alias that they wish to be known as in the game (FIG. 2). Theyalso provide a password so that only they may play the game with thatalias. After filling out the required text fields on the web page, theuser clicks a link typically labeled as “submit.” Consequently theirinternet browser software sends the information to the server, whichdirects the information to the internet service software running on theserver, which records the new user in the database. The user may nowplay the game by using links on the web site.

The web site displays publicity data for each celebrity, as gathered bythe internet service described above (FIG. 3). Using this data, as wellas any knowledge the user may have regarding a celebrity, the user makesan educated guess as to what celebrities will generate publicity in thefuture. The user makes their guess known to the internet service throughthe web site by clicking a link, typically one labeled as “buy” or“trade”. This action makes a request to the internet service, whichmoves the selected celebrity into the user's fantasy team or portfolioby creating a record in the database (FIG. 5).

While a celebrity is in a user's fantasy team, any news articles foundby the internet service that contain that celebrity's name are assignedas points to the user. The user may hold the celebrity and continue toreceive points if they think the celebrity will continue to be in thenews, or they may “trade” or “sell” the celebrity.

The goal of the user is to accrue more points then other users playingthe game. To keep score, the internet service uses the database to trackeach user's accrued points and compare them against other users.

Since the internet service runs indefinitely, users playing the gameneed to specify a set time period during which they compete. To solvethis problem, the web site allows the creation of leagues. Leagues are aperiod of time during which specific groups of users try to accrue themost points. The internet service tracks how many points each useraccrues during the duration of league play and ranks the users in theleague based on their points accrued (FIG. 4).

To create a league, a user clicks a link on the web site, typicallylabeled “start league” or “create league.” They select a day and timethey would like the league to start and a day and time for the league toend. When this information has been entered on the league creation areaof the web site, the user clicks a link typically labeled “submit” tosend the information to the server. This action requests that theinternet service create a record of this league in the database. Theuser can then invite other users to join their league so that they maycompete directly with each other.

Leagues also serve as forums where users can discuss their progress inthe game. A user may leave a message or comment to another user to readwhen they return to the website and view the league (FIG. 6). To leave amessage, the user clicks a link typically labeled as “write comment” or“leave message.” The user then fills in the text area on the web pageand clicks a link typically labeled as “submit.” This causes theirinternet browser software to send the message to the server. In turn theinternet service records the message in the database, making itavailable for display on the web page.

At the conclusion of league play, a winner is declared. Users maycontinue to play the game outside of league play or they may create anew league.

Although the invention has been described in language specific tostructural features and/or methodological steps, it is to be understoodthat the invention defined in the appended claims is not necessarilylimited to the specific features or steps described. Rather, thespecific features and steps are disclosed as preferred forms ofimplementing the claimed invention.

1. A method of tracking publicity about individuals with celebritystatus, wherein an internet service compiles data from news articles onthe internet containing celebrity names, and for each article found,records the celebrity named in the article.
 2. A method of playing agame where players attempt to accurately predict when celebrities willhave publicity in the future, wherein players select celebrities oftheir choice and acquire points in the game when the service in claim 1finds published internet articles containing the names of their selectedcelebrities.